Actually pretty good - I got to go to a hair show with my daughter (she's in vo tech for cosmetology). So we had a bus ride to New York, and I had a great time. I've never been to one before. By the end of the day, I wanted to learn to cut hair!

I went to the annual Wells Fargo shareholder meeting. It was interesting.

I'm sipping a martini at my son's piano lesson after riding my bicycle home from work. It's a perfect 80 degrees out. Life is good.

My day started with a crazy jerk louding telling me and my bosses that we were 'assholes like everyone else in New York City,' when we asked him what kind of book she had in an 8-box load in his car. Then he went to his car, came back with a leather-bound book which he threw in the door, yelling 'here's a souvenier, assholes!' I went to throw the book back out the door (and possibly to tell him that if he came back he'd be hitting the sidewalk face first. getting publicly insulted gets my dander up like nothing else), but my boss said to keep it.

Later, the girl who runs the poetry section brought me a copy of this (yeah it's that guy) and said was this the book you were looking for awhile back?' which was nice. (I loaned my copy to a friend who still has it, but now I have my own again, even though it's out of print).

You might say the day was a mixed bag.

Just got back reviews from a grant that I submitted a 3rd year. Reviewers didn't like it, again. Their comments are frustrating because it's clear they didn't read it. I feel crappy. But I have plans to drink beer in an hour with some lovely people so I am slowly cheering up.

My day has been long. I'm still at work, so it will be an 11 hour day (with oh, 15 minutes for lunch; and make that a nearly 13 hour day with commutes) by the time I'm done. I'm starving!!

Surprisingly well, considering I had a surgery, wrote a check for 871 dollars, and had only clear liquids until 3pm. Surprisingly well. I'm feeling darn chipper.

About the same as yours, I think. Didn't get a nominated for the Truman grant by my school, didn't get into a class next semester that I sort of needed to take in order to graduate, and got yelled at by my poli sci professor for (stupidly) rising to her bait in class this morning and questioning the validity of a statement she was making (dumb, rookie mistake that I've made twice in the past week). I wrote a hell of negative course evaluation though, so that was nice.

I have Jon's book, I am contrite, but unbowed.

I went to the quack and it turns out that I'm horribly anaemic, which is why I've been feeling like crap for the last month or so. And then last night I ended up having a gallstone attack and spent the wee small hours rocking over my laptop trying not to throw up and alternately sweating and freezing my tits off. The hole in the backyard and the resulting Bog of Eternal Stench are still there and I couldn't give a shit right now because we BOUGHT A HOUSE and will never have to deal with idiot rental agents again!!! Huzzah! In fact, I'm celebrating by crawling back into bed shortly and I suspect the cat will join me for warmth and snuggles.

I have Jon's book, I am contrite, but unbowed.

It's yours now, dawg. Don't sweat it.

Besides I think I still have your copy of From Here To Eternity. I'll return it if you want and I promis not to throw it at you.

I visited a new showroom that has nothing but green products in it. Real green products, no green washing stuff.

Then I went to the dentist.

What kind of wolves, danf?

My day was spent dealing with the FQT's at my job (Flightless Quail 'Tards).

Never underestimate the power of white-collar pampered people in cube rows to exhibit stunning displays of dysfunction.

I think I'm either going to join the circus or become a minister.

My day was better than yesterday. Meds are up to near-full titration, no weepy episodes, no tumbles in the health food section of the Hy-Vee, nothing got frostkilled last night. I planted 20 lady ferns to keep my Oriental/Asiatic lilies company in the north side of the house and got a pot of tulips from one of my students. All in all, a great day.

It's been a long week of studying and writing, and I didn't allot myself enough time to do it all gracefully.

BUT. I just finished a long essay, the same paper that kept me up 'til 3 a.m. writing and the same paper that had the gall to wake me up early this morning with a whole new idea about how I should restructure it.

Yes, I anthropomorphised my coursework. Hell, I'm so sleep-deprived I'm seeing things: sparks of liight, flashes of color, dark slithering tails of beast in the corner of my vision. It's Jacob's Ladder around here, my friends.

There's more work to do tomorrow, but that's tomorrow, baby. Time to close up shop.

I think I'm either going to join the circus or become a minister.

Oh, or both, or both!

Join the circus. Let's all join a circus.

Not a bad day, all in all. The rain held off, though we did get thunder and I could see it just pissing down on the mainland. Got a bit too cold and windy so I packed it in a bit early, but one more coat and my time on the roof is over! Also, I get a slave helper to do the prep so I can focus on the painting, which makes me very happy. And when I was walking down the road to work today a guy pulled over and asked if I was a painter (no, I'm a fucking professional quilter, I'm just really messy at it), 'cause he's got a big job to do (whole house, inside and out) and doesn't want to bring people over from the mainland. Unfortunately, the interior won't be ready for paint for a couple of weeks at least, so I can't fill my rainy days with that part. He's fine with my rates so I'm gonna take a look at it, but don't know how much I can get done before I go south. Figures--now that I'm independent it's raining work, but I've given my notice and am headin' out.

danf--that is a fantastic description. May I use it? Pretty please? I'll give you credit for it.

I thought this was the circus.

I wrote a hell of negative course evaluation though, so that was nice.

Last semester, I had a professor from hell, and we all wrote scathing reviews (my favorite, from a classmate, was something like, "This professor is passive-aggressive and has no boundaries. She needs to put her own life in order before she teaches students again. This class was a miserable experience from beginning to end."). This semester, we found they did away with the free-form entry reviews, now it's only scantron bubbles.

We broke the reviews. :-(

My day, however, was fine. Quiet. And I just did 90min. on the elliptical trainer while watching crappy television, which makes me happy.

Today was just fine. I worked out for over two hours without realizing it, until I had to pay for the garage on the way out. Went to work, edited radio programs in Cubase all day, which is a dream job I never imagined I'd get. The heat wave in L.A. has broken, sparing me the purchase of a $200 air conditioner. And now I get to lounge around at home, practice my voice, perhaps write some new songs. And go to San Francisco at the end of the week to see the oldest friends I have in the world.

Aside from the same old post-breakup heartache I still suffer in random flashes throughout the day, I have nothing, it seems, to complain about.

(Sorry.)

This semester, we found they did away with the free-form entry reviews, now it's only scantron bubbles.

occhiblu, is there any blank, unbubbled space at all on those forms? My uni uses the bubble forms, but there's a small block in which a student can leave an (optional) free-form review. Our dept. chair told me that if the student signs the review, it's retained in the instructor's file.

Alternatively, I have been known to write a letter to the dept. chair. I do this when a prof is outstandingly good... and once I did it to report an apparent violation of policy.

it's only scantron bubbles.

I initially read that as 'Scranton Bubbles,' which sounds like either a by-products intensive breakfast dish or a sexual practice that I don't want to learn about.

occhiblu, is there any blank, unbubbled space at all on those forms?

No, not really. The ones we used before that were free-form were shared with the professors, in some sort of aggregate form, but I don't know if they were put in their files -- I sure hope they were, because my LORD that woman was a bad teacher.

I like the idea of writing to the chair. Though our chair is currently on-leave, which has been creating all sorts of hassle. Sigh.

I'm almost done I'm almost done I'm almost done I'm almost done...

danf--that is a fantastic description. May I use it? Pretty please? I'll give you credit for it.

I heard it years ago. You don't need to give me credit. . .just get drunk with me at some point during your American sojourn. . .

(this was post #250 for me. . .woo hoo!)

ethelyne. .work wolves . .a very out of synch day.

My day has been mildly surreal, topped off with a VERY surreal episode of AI. Can't share because essexjan hasn't seen it yet...(but when she does, we really need to yack!)

I like the idea of writing to the chair.

You're writing to your furniture? As long as it dosen't write back...

(puts me in the mind of that Neil Diamond song '...and noone heard, not even The Chair..')

Huh. I thought I'd written and posted a couple of well-thought-out things to follow up on the student evaluation issue, but, uh, I don't see them.

As I mentioned, I'm am at a [Jacob's Ladder/ dosed with acid/ pushing the edges of ethical experimentation/ seeing things and not friendly things either] level of sleep deprivation, so... maybe I hallucinated typing them out and hitting post.

You don't need to give me credit. . .just get drunk with me at some point during your American sojourn. . .

You're on. Actually, I'd love to do a MeCha trip down the coast--Seattle, Portland, Eugene, SF, mudpuppieland...dunno when that would be, though.

On preview: go sleep, Elsa. The days when that level of sleep deprivation was kinda fun are long behind us.

*waves to elizard* Hi! I can't go to sleep! It's a perfect confluence of sleeplessness and caffeine. I'll be up for hours, utterly unable to work profitably, unable to close my eyes, unable to stop seeing things. Baaaaaad things.

I can, however, stop babbling on about it and go take a bath. Yay!

Happy night, y'all!

occhiblu: Nice. ours have about six or seven statements ("The readings helped me understand the course material, discussion with my classmates helped me understand the course material" etc) with scantron bubbles and also a freeform area. I know that the "strongly disagree-strongly agree" stuff gets added up and given as an aggregate to the professor and the department chair and the student committee that has input on tenure decisions (each department has one of those at my college. it's pretty neat), and all of the freeform stuff is photocopied and given to the prof and the department chair.

The photocopying part is a little worrying because I have fairly distinctive handwriting, but it probably doesn't matter. For one thing, I was able to articulate specific problems within the class that go beyond "we had a personality conflict," so it'll be harder to brush off. Besides, I don't plan on taking another class with this professor or probably even in the department because this class has made me so angry and frustrated.

Gah, sorry I didn't mean to rant. I should've started a shouting thread or something, clearly this is bothering me more than I thought it was.

Managed to straighten up the guest bathroom, bedroom hallway and clean up the mouse turds from the linen closet(thank god no nest). It is still not enough.

Three days of being violated by strangers is all i can deal with at a go.

I'm good. Very well, all in all - yet a little frustrated and anxious... We want to adopt a rescue dog, but blimey, it's taking so long, and now it's getting kind of silly. Dog is with a volunteer foster somewhere way outside of town, with, like 40 other dogs, and she hasn't had a stable or happy history, and I want her. Hello? Now?

But it's been emails and emails, then we had to fill out an application that took about an hour, plus sacrifices to the gods and promises of money - which is all fine... then we didn't hear back, so emailed again, and yes, application is okay, but now someone has to come to our house and check us out - no word on when this is supposed to happen... And our window of opportunity for getting a friend to drive us way the hell out to Bumfuck Egypt to pick up the dog is rapidly drawing to a close, as the friend who will take us begins an intensive two-week shooting schedule next week (our friend we did the puppysitting for, so this favor is nicely quid pro quo). And... I don't know. Now I'm just feeling like maybe it won't work out, which is silly, since we're right here, ready and eager to get the dog, and, I think, a damn good catch for a pet that could use a lot of TLC and time and attention. *frowny*

Still, beats the hell out of being violated by strangers. *hugs eth*

eaten by wolves and then shit over a cliff

I agree this is brilliant. Thanks for reviving it for us even if you didn't invent it.

My day...

I've recently made a bunch of decisions that will affect my life in just about the biggest ways possible. I'm at peace with all of them but the wheels are only JUST beginning to turn with a giant creaking sound. In some real ways I still have to live out a life I've closed the door on for a week or two more. Then EVERYTHING will turn upside down and wonderful. I'm looking forward to the wonderful but the change is scary. And having to show up to the "old life," even for a few more days, is an experience I would use some combination of "shite" and "surreal" to describe if such an adjective existed.

It's great to hear about all the nice days and heartening even to hear about the lousy ones.

elizard, if you end up anywhere near NW Arkansas during your travels, PLEASE EMAIL ME!

occhi, hang in there... Almost done! Yay!

brujita, my apartment complex does semi-regular inspections, so I feel your pain on strangers wandering through your living space. My next one is in a week and a half and they even check the closets. This too shall pass.

My day:
I got the kids out the door to go to school and thought to myself, "I get to doze in the lovely warm bed for another 30 minutes" when my phone rang. It was my very sick boss asking me to cover his part of the day. That meant I had to get to work an hour earlier than usual and stay an hour later as well as doing several admin tasks that aren't usually on my plate. Then, I asked my fiance to work my part of the day because, hey, he was right there and is dependable. In the same lab. I can live with my guy, but I'm not as fond of working with him, so it was kind of prickly and weird. We survived and still plan on getting married in 6 weeks.

That lead to some OMG, 6 WEEKS UNTIL WE GET MARRIED trains of thought. We're still figuring out vows and stuff.

This evening, my kids had a choir and bell chime performance that we had jokingly referred to as "screech and clang" during the day, but it was much nicer than anyone expected. The only pain was totally rearranging when we usually have dinner.

So now, I'm off to bed, and hoping the wonderful boss is feeling much better tomorrow.